Maynard, MA, USA: Beacon-Villager newspaper column on local history, observations on nature and recreational activities, plus an occasional health-related article. Columns from 2009-11 collected into book "MAYNARD: History and Life Outdoors." Columns from 2012-14 collected into book "Hidden History of Maynard." - David A. Mark

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Sunday, May 11, 2014

Luna Moths Inspire Poetry

Male Luna moth in morning sun. Note feathery antennae

A different version of this article, with more photos, was posted on this blog May 2013. Still there.

Luna moths sightings are rare. The moths themselves are not
so much rare as secluded, secretive and short-lived, for these are deep-woods
dwelling, night-flying, short-lived moths. In New England,
adults emerge from pupa in mid-May to early June. The adults rest all day. The
adults do not feed, hence are never seen flitting from flower to flower, and
live for only about a week - their sole purpose (besides beauty) being to mate
before dying.

In northern states the cycle from egg
hatching to egg laying takes a year, with only the last week spent as a winged
adult. In central and southern states there may be two or even three
generations during the warm months, with only first cycle of adults having
overwintered as pupae.

The males use their intricately branched antennae to detect scent pheromones
released by females. The detection system is so sensitive that a male in flight
can detect the presence of just a few molecules in the air. He will then
immediately turn and fly upwind into the mild night wind, traveling miles on
her gradually intensifying scent steam until he finds her perched on a tree.

Each male and female mate once (a process that takes several
hours). The female deposits several hundred fertilized eggs over the next 2-3
nights. Caterpillars hatch several weeks later, eat and grow until fall,
over-winter as a pupa, then burst forth as adults in early summer.

Tiger Swallowtail butterfly feeding at flower

Luna moths have "eyespots" on both pairs of wings.
Some related species have eyespots only on the underwings. There is a theory
that moving the top pair of wings apart to suddenly reveal what looks like
large eyes on the underwings might briefly scare away an attacking bird or
other predator, allowing the moth time to escape.

Henry David Thoreau jotted a few
notes in his journal, June 1859: "I found a remarkable moth lying flat on
the still water as if asleep, they appear to sleep during the day, as large as
the smaller birds. Five and a half inches in alar extent and about three inches
long...with a remarkably narrow lunar cut tail of a sea green color with four
conspicuous spots whitish within then a red line, then yellowish border below
or toward the tail, but brown orange and black above toward head. A very robust
body covered with a kind of downy plumage an inch and a quarter long by five
eighths thick. The sight affected me as tropical and I suppose it is the
northern verge of some species. It suggests into what productions Nature would
run if all the year were a July."

Similar moths, i.e., night fliers with
green coloring, wing eyespots and tailed underwings, live elsewhere in the
world. A search on "moon moth" will yield information and pictures on
many related species in Asia, Africa, plus one in Spain that as a caterpillar eats
pine needles.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds have wingspan and body
weight similar to Luna moths. Painting by Bruce Davidson.

In many cultures, butterflies and moths are thought to represent human souls.
From Bulfinch's Mythology "The Greek name for a butterfly is Psyche, and
the same word means the soul. There is no illustration of the immortality of
the soul so striking and beautiful as the butterfly, bursting on brilliant
wings from the tomb [pupa] in which it has lain, after a dull, groveling,
caterpillar existence, to flutter in the blaze of day and feed on the most
fragrant and delicate productions of the spring. Psyche, then, is the human
soul, which is purified by sufferings and misfortunes, and is thus prepared for
the enjoyment of true and pure happiness."

Psyche's story is of a young woman who became the lover of Eros (Cupid), who
was with her only during the darkness of night. For the forbidden folly of viewing
his sleeping body by lamplight, she was tasked by the Goddess Aphrodite (Eros'
mother) with four near-impossible challenges. Upon completing these, she was
given the drink of immortality by Zeus, and rejoined Eros. In art, Psyche is
often portrayed with butterfly wings while Eros is shown with feathered wings.